Phone Magic

 

I had a friend for quite a few years who I met when I was selling Mazdas on Fulton Avenue. He was a sales trainer from New York City and he was hired to teach us about using the phones and a follow up system to sell more cars. The dealership paid him a lot of money, (I heard 10 grand), for three days and that was in 1986.

He didn’t really have anything more to say than I’d already heard, but he was a very motivating man and just being around him turned the day brighter and made me more aware of everything around me and everything I did and thought. And when he was gone, I did sell more cars.

I kept some of his sales tools and habits throughout my life and even found a way to translate them into tools to use in my personal life. What he showed me and shared may have been one of the biggest motivators for me to stay sober.

But the most fascinating thing he showed us was his ability and talent to use the phone to really reach out and communicate. On the last day of his training he showed us how to cold call people and sell cars and service.

He sat in my little cubicle and grabbed my phone book and randomly picked a page and started calling people. He would introduce himself in a voice he did not use in person. It was deeper, slower, and more forceful, and he always had a huge smile on his face. He would tell the folks on the phone that he was the “new guy” at the dealership and just wanted to introduce himself and offer them a special deal on an oil change or check-up or something else, and he would eventually slide into offering them a no-pressure test drive in a new Mazda.

When he got someone on the phone, they rarely hung up on him, he would almost immediately find out what they liked and would ask questions, laugh, and compliment them effusively, and then he would set an appointment to come look at a new car. In about two hours he set solid appointments for six people and he would give them the name of one of the salesman there. He gave me two. They both showed up on time, and I sold a new Mazda 626 and I sold a used Chevy truck. The other four appointments all showed up, though I think one of them called to re-schedule, and we sold three cars for the six appointments.

I have tried to use his suggestions since then, and while I am not the king of salesmen, I have done pretty well And when I remember where I got any of the tools I have for living, I try to remember who taught me and see their faces. He had this huge smile and was wide open, and would stride forward to greet you and made you feel like a king or a queen, every single time